


Momentous

by cookiegirl



Category: The Prom - Sklar/Beguelin/Martin
Genre: 5 Things, F/F, First Meetings, Getting Together, Make the Yuletide Gay, Pre-Canon, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-12 08:27:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21946822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cookiegirl/pseuds/cookiegirl
Summary: Five things Alyssa Greene notices about the girl who sits alone at lunch.
Relationships: Alyssa Greene/Emma Nolan
Comments: 12
Kudos: 49
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Momentous

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Sonni89](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sonni89/gifts).

_1\. The way she eats lunch_

Alyssa has gotten good at pretending to be interested in things she isn't really interested in. It's a skill she learned at home when she was little, pleasing her mother by pretending to care about what the other parents did for a living, how she matched up against the other little girls, and how she should look and act to give the best impression of a young lady. Now it's a skill she uses every lunchtime, letting Kaylee and Shelby and Lauren believe she's just as invested in the things they like as they are. She can carry on her side of a conversation about make-up or clothes or which boy in the football team is the hottest, without really engaging her brain. It leaves her mind free to wander, and her eyes free to wander too.

Lately, it seems like her eyes settle on the same thing every lunchtime, though she still hasn't worked out why.

She tries not to be too obvious about it, tries not to stare, but there's something about the girl that makes it hard to look away. Emma, her name is - she's in Alyssa's chem class, though they've never spoken. She almost always sits alone at lunch, but she never looks lonely, or bored; she always has something with her, like a notebook she's writing in or a novel she's reading. When she writes, she leans over the table, absent-mindedly lifting her food with her left hand while she works with her right, her pen sometimes moving so fast Alyssa wonders how her brain can keep up. And when she reads, she becomes completely involved, her face smoothing out into a faraway look, as though she's forgotten she's in a noisy high school cafeteria in Indiana and has been transported somewhere else entirely. Alyssa isn't a big novel-reader, but she finds herself wanting to know what worlds Emma is visiting, and go there too. They must be more interesting than this one.

Today, Emma's reading a yellow paperback with a thick, bold font on the front cover. Alyssa is squinting slightly, trying to read the title, when she realizes Shelby is asking her a question. Something about whether Jared and Leah are dating or not.

"Um, yeah, I guess so," Alyssa says, tearing her eyes away from Emma's table. "I heard Melanie say she saw them at Applebee's on Tuesday night, holding hands under the table."

"See, I told you," Shelby says, but she's directing her words at Kaylee now, and Alyssa lets her gaze drift back across the room. Emma's putting her book back in her bag and picking up her lunch tray, and Alyssa has a sudden crazy urge to get up and follow her. 

\---

_2\. How she looks when she blushes_

"Hey, wait," Alyssa says as she catches up with Emma just outside the doors to the cafeteria. She's surprised herself by telling her friends she'd see them in gym, and her body seems to have gone after Emma of its own accord. Emma stops and looks at her, and Alyssa realizes she has no idea what to say. All her hard earned poise and eloquence from debate club seem to desert her and for a second she just stares uselessly, wondering why her brain is short-circuiting.

"Um, hi," Emma says, shifting awkwardly on her feet. Her gaze flicks up and down Alyssa quickly, shyly, taking in the cheerleader outfit, then she tugs at her own shirt sleeves. "Did you need something?"

Alyssa tries to think of something. Anything. Anything at all.

"Great book, right?" she tries, nodding at the yellow novel sticking out of Emma's backpack.

Emma's expression turns from confused to excited in an instant. "You've read _I'll Give You The Sun_?" she says, her smile lighting up her whole face, and Alyssa wants, desperately, to say yes, but she can see already that she won't get away with the lie.

"Um, no. Well, I mean...it looked great. It looked like you were enjoying it." Oh, why has she forgotten how to converse like a human? What has possessed her to tell Emma she's been watching her? She should leave right now.

Emma looks confused again for a moment, but then she relaxes a little and gives a small, quiet laugh. "It is. You can borrow it, when I'm done, if you want?"

Alyssa nods. "Yeah, that would be...that would be good. Thank you." It suddenly occurs to her that she hasn't introduced herself. "I'm Alyssa, by the way."

"I know," says Emma. "I noticed you in chem class." Pink tinges her cheeks suddenly and she tugs at her sleeves again. "I mean…" She trails off, unsure, and Alyssa feels an odd, happy buzz in her chest.

"And you're Emma, right?" she says, and Emma nods, still blushing.

"I'll be finished soon," she says. "With the book."

"Cool. Thanks. I guess I'll... see you around, then." Alyssa raises her hand in a tiny wave that probably looks ridiculous, but she doesn't know what else to do, and Emma nods, and smiles, and walks away down the corridor, leaving Alyssa feeling like something momentous has happened, even though nothing has really happened at all.

\---

_3\. How soft her hands are_

A week later, Alyssa's taking her time to pack up her things after chem class. Her lab partner's already gone, and the classroom is emptying out quickly. But Emma's still there, on the other side of the room, taking an equally long time to put her textbook and pens back in her bag. Alyssa keeps her head down, nervous for reasons she doesn't understand, but lets her gaze flick over toward Emma, and their eyes meet. 

Alyssa can see her bite her lip, even from a few yards away, but Emma doesn't look away. She crosses the room toward Alyssa, fishes out the yellow paperback from her bag and hands it over. Alyssa reaches for it automatically and their fingers meet, just for a second. Emma's are warm and dry and soft. 

"Thanks," she says, then falls quiet, words deserting her again. 

"No problem," Emma says. "Let me know what you think of it?"

"Sure. Definitely." She watches Emma head out of the classroom, and wonders whether it's normal to feel this excited over borrowing a book.

\---

_4\. What it feels like to miss her_

Alyssa stays up most of the night reading, the glow from her book light going unnoticed by her mom. It's been a long time since she's read a book that isn't for school, but reading this one, she can see why Emma looked enraptured by it. It's beautiful almost to the point of being poetry, and she falls for the characters immediately. By the time she gets to school the next day, she wants nothing more than to talk about it.

She doesn't have chem on Thursdays, and Emma isn't in the cafeteria at lunch. She doesn't know where Emma's locker is, and for all she knows Emma might have a lunchtime club, or even have stayed home sick. So she squashes down the desire to go looking for her, and she sits at her normal table with Shelby and Kaylee, eating her sandwiches and discussing the fact that Jared and Leah have broken up already.

For a brief moment, there's a lull in the conversation, and Alyssa imagines bringing up the book. She imagines trying to tell them about the way the author's words hit her in the chest, the way the author writes about growing up, and struggling with grief, and bullying, and being confused about who you're attracted to. And then she imagines Shelby and Kaylee's faces when she brings up that last part, and she knows she can't say anything. Not to them.

She sips her drink, nods along as the conversation moves to outfits for Nicola's party, and thinks about Emma, and how it's somehow possible to miss someone you barely know.

\---

_5\. How easy it is to agree to a date with her_

The next day, Alyssa's busy walking to math class and wondering if Emma will be at lunch, when she literally bumps into her in the hallway. Alyssa's bag falls to the floor, spilling its contents, and she and Emma both get down on their knees, almost bumping into each other again in the process.

"Sorry, sorry," Alyssa says, as she scrabbles around for pens and pencils on the floor while fellow students walk either side. Her head is close to Emma's and she can smell mango shampoo.

"It's fine," Emma says, and she's somehow laughing and grimacing at the same time as she reaches for an eraser that's bounced away. Then her eyes fall on the novel Alyssa borrowed and she looks up. "Are you enjoying the book?"

"Yes!" Alyssa says, cringing a little internally at how excited she sounds. "I just finished it!" She puts the last item back in her bag and stands, Emma following suit. "I really wanted to talk to you about the way that - " she says, but then the bell rings, and the hallway starts to empty.

Emma shrugs, smiles. "You could come over to my house tonight to talk about it, if you want," she says, then looks as if she's taken herself by surprise. "I mean, only if…"

"Yes! Yes, that sounds good," Alyssa says, and Emma grins. 

"Cool. I'll see you later, then," she says.

Alyssa nods, does the tiny wave with her hand that she can't seem to stop doing around Emma, and hurries to math class. It only hits her as she sits down in the classroom, her palms sweating and her face warm, that she quite possibly has... a date.

She swallows, her heart beating a terrified rhythm in her chest, but she can't help but smile.

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Yuletide :)
> 
> Thanks to firstlovelatespring for the beta.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [[Podfic of] Momentous](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24101425) by [girlwithabubblegun](https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlwithabubblegun/pseuds/girlwithabubblegun), [klb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/klb/pseuds/klb)


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